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Ser Duncan the Tall was a knight like no other.
Broad and tall, standing among the others with his humility and unwavering honour, with an aura of genuine nobility that surrounded him, unlike the arrogant knights you had met.
You sensed it in the way Duncan approached you after winning the tourney, head low in a bow and a polite smile plastered on his face as he crowned you the Queen of Love and Beauty under the watchful eyes of your father, King Maekar I.
From that moment, that simple encounter turned into a continuous relationship once Duncan became your sworn knight.
It all started softly, with achingly tender gestures like casual hand kisses after your courteous regards, followed by lingering gazes respectful yet undeniably earnest. Long horseback rides filled your days, setting a new kind of intimacy made by tender whispers and unspoken love language.
And as in all chivalric tales, you both fell in love.
You knew it was all wrong; you were a princess of a great House, he was a hedge knight raised in Flea Bottom. Yet love bloomed anyway—quiet, stubborn, and devastatingly sincere.
"Tell me to stop, m'lady, and I will," Duncan pleaded one day against your skin, bodies bare and tangled in your chambers. He knew that Maekar would likely demand his head if he found his affair with his daughter, but the warmth engulfing both of you was quick to cloud his judgement.
"Stay," you murmured, cupping his cheeks and leaning close to him, "Love me not as a princess bound by blood and crown, but as a woman who conquered your heart."
Your plea was enough to let his spirit break.
He felt like Icarus, wings melting not from arrogance, but from devotion.
Falling willingly into the ruin of loving you.